Sealing strip



Oct. 3, 1944. L. K. LOFTlN 2,359,375

Filed Oct. 6.'l941 Patented Oct. 3, 1944 SEALING STRIP Laurence K. Loftin, Altavista, Va, assignor to The Lane Company, Inc., Altavista, Va., a corporation of Virginia,

Application October 6, 1941, Serial No. 413,837

2 Claims.

This invention relates to a sealing strip and to closures such as doors, windows, drawers, cabinet or chest covers, lids, etc. equipped therewith.

'A specific embodiment of the invention in which I am particularly interested is the Lane cedar chest which is designed to provide 'a high concentration of cedar aroma within'the chest for a long period of time by virtue of certain special features of construction, such as the sealing of the walls and seams of the chest against the escape of cedar aroma, the sealing of the cover or lid by means of a sealing strip, the coating of the inside of the chest and the hardware thereof to regulate the emanation of the aroma from the Wood and to prevent gumming, etc. In such a cedar chest the metal sealing strip must be made of or coated with certain noncatalytic metals or protected by a coating of certain compositions in order to prevent gumming. For a detailed disclosure of the above mentioned features, reference is made to the following United States Letters Patent to Crocker, Nos.

1,999,960, 2,023,465, 2,058,571 and 2,188,707.

Copper alloy having the necessary resiliency commonly is used as sealing strip material. It is fairly expensive and has the additional disad-, vantage in cedar chest construction that it tends to become coated with gummy deposits unless it is coated and protected by certain metals or lacquers as pointed out above.

An object of the present invention is to provide a sealing strip which is non-catalytic to cedar aroma or oil, relatively inexpensive and durable and efficient.

In accordance with the invention, a sealing strip is made of plywood consisting of two or more plies of a suitable wood, such as maple, stuck together by a suitable adhesive, such as waterproof glue, and in which the lines of the grains of the wood of the plies are set at such angles to each other as to be resilient, and at such angles to the edge of the strip or line of contact of the strip with its support that in use of the strip each ply will be bent along a line which is at a sufficiently large angle to the line of the grain thereof that splitting is avoided and resiliency is retained.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a cedar chest equipped with a sealing strip in accordance with the invention,

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional perspective view of a molding provided with the sealing strip,

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a portion of a receptacle, such as a cedar chest, showing .a modified use of the strip, and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a strip and its support showing another method of mounting the strip.

Referring to the drawing, i is a cedar .chest body, 2 the cover and 3 the sealing strip. The sealing strip may be attached in various. ways, but I prefer the construction illustrated in Fig. 2 in which the edge of the strip is set into the groove 4 in the molding strip 9 at an angle of about 20 to the fiat surface 5. The groove and strip may, of course, be at other angles to the flat surface 5 from at least about 15 up to about 45. The upper face 6 of the groove 4 preferably is of such a width, e. g. about one-third the width of the strip 3, as to provide a substantial support for the strip as its free edge is flexed toward the surface 5 by contact with the upper edge of the chest body, The lower face I of the groove 4 may be relatively short since the flexing of the strip has small tendency to pry the edge of the strip out of the groove 4. The lower face I of the groove 4 may be positioned so as to leave a small portion of the surface 5, that is to say, the groove 4 is cut entirely in the surface 5 but adjacent its intersection with the wall 8 of the molding. The parts above described may be of any suitable size, but for the purpose of illustration and example the following dimensions are given. With a sealing strip made of two plies of /50 inch veneer the strip may be inch wide.

It will be appreciated that the sealingstrip may be secured to the cover or to the body of the receptacle or to a door, window, drawer or the like in a variety of ways other than that illustrated. As is illustrated in Fig. 3, the sealing strip 3 may be set into a vertical groove H) in the upper edge of the body of the chest and extend into the groove II in the cover. The strip may be held in the groove by means of glue or merely by friction. The groove II in the cover may be widened and its walls rounded to receive the free edge of the sealing strip 3 and to take care of slight misalignment of the strip 3 With groove ll. Fig. 4 illustrates the fastening of the strip 3 to its support I2 without the use of a groove, the strip being simply glued, nailed or stapled to the surface l3 of the support.

An important feature of the invention is the construction of the strip 3. It should be thin and flexible and made of a suitable wood, such as maple. The lines of the grains of the plies should be crossed at a suitable angle, e. g. about to each other, and the grain of each ply should be at a suitable angle, say 45, to the edge of the strip so that flexing of the strip in use will not bend the strip along a line parallel to the grain of the Wood. The lines of the grains of the plies may be at any suitable angle to each other and to the edge of the strip so long as they do not too closely approach parallelism to each other and the lines of the grain of neither ply too closely approaches parallelism to the edge of the strip. It is preferred that the angles of the lines of the grains of the plies to the edge of the strip be equal and the angle of the line of the grain of each ply to the edge of the strip should be not less than about angle of the lines of the grains of the plies to each other will be not greater than about 150 nor less than about 30. The thickness of the plies and of the strip may be proportioned, as will be apparent, to correspond to the width of the strip and the desired flexibility thereof.

It has been found in practice that sealing strips made of two plies of wood the grains of which are at a suitable angle to each other, e. g. about 90, and to the edge of the strip, i. e. to the line of the support, e. g. about 45, are sufijciently stiff and pliable to conform to the irregularities of surface normally encountered and to effectively seal the joint, and further that such sealing strips are durable and do not break or warp or lose flexibility and are relatively inexpensive. Sealing strips made of plywood have the added advantage in cedar receptacles that without special treatment they do not become gummy. They may be built into the receptacle by being inserted in a groove in a molding, as illustrated in Fig. 2, which molding may be made in standard lengths and then cut by sawing as required. It is not practical to do this with sealing strips of either metal or rubber.

The foregoing description is based upon the concept of a strip with two plies, but it is to be Thus, the

understood that the strip may be made of three or more plies. In the case of three plies, for instance, the lines of the grains of all three plies may be at angles of at least 30 to each other, and none of them less than 15 to the edge of the strip. For example, the lines of the grains of the two outer plies may be crossed at an angle of 150 or less, and the line of the grain of the middle ply may be perpendicular to the edge of the strip. Or the lines of the grains of the two outer plies may be parallel and at an angle of more than 30 to the middle ply. In the case of four or more plies, it is preferable to cross the lines of the grains of adjacent plies at a suitable angle, but the lines of the grains of the first and third and the lines of the grains of the sec- 0nd and fourth plies may be parallel. In a twoply strip, neither ply should have the line of its grain at an angle of to the edge of the strip, but as stated above, when there are three or more plies, the line of the grain of one of them may be at 90 to the edge of the strip. The arrangement of the lines of the grains of the plies at the specified angles to each other and to the edge of the strip serves the double purpose of preventing splitting of the plies and of giving the strip resiliency.

I claim:

1. A sealing strip consisting of a thin and flexible relatively long and narrow body of plywood with the lines of the grains of adjacent plies set at an angle of at least about 30 and not greater than about to each other, the angle of the line of the grain of each ply being at least about 15 to the edge of the strip.

2. A sealing strip consisting of a thin and flexible relatively long and narrow body of plywood with the lines of the grains thereof at an angle of about 90 to each other and the line of the grain of each ply at an angle of about 45 to the edge of the strip.

LAURENCE K. LOFTIN. 

